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Monthly Archives: November 2014

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‘When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade’ that old chestnut hey?

But who ever signed up for lemonade making? I mean, unless you’re an old-school Grandma who has a better recipe for lemonade than Schweppes, I think you should leave bubble-making to the experts.

But I guess that’s it isn’t it. You may not have signed up for lemonade making, or ‘that’ outcome, ‘that’ answer, ‘that’ response, or ‘that’ moment – it just happened. And here you are, with two bags full of lemons and a lack of thirst. Now what?

Unfortunately, nobody ever makes a plan for things to go badly, and I suppose that’s the magic of life. We never truly know what is up, down, or due to happen in any given second.

All we can be sure of, is this lemonade philosophy: that given even the sourest ingredient imaginable, something good, refreshing and sweet CAN emerge.

At the very least, plan for that and find a recipe for making a comeback, if Mariah Carey can do it, so can you!

Like Killer Pythons and The Lion King, it seems that a broken arm, leg, finger or something, is an essential part of growing up.

Even I, the girl whose idea of a ‘daredevilish’ time is a round on the Ferris Wheel, have endured the torment of broken a bone – admittedly I was one year of age, and it wasn’t my fault.

But Mum has sweetly kept the miniature cast of my thunder thing toddler leg, proving that I’m a fully fledged survivor and the truth that falling down and getting hurt is part of life.

We stumble, often really hard, so hard that the pain is not just a temporary scratch able to be remedied by a cool Wiggles band-aid, but one whose ache lingers for at least 6 weeks, and leaves a great looking scar forever.

But I recently learned something interesting about this: a bone that is broken will heal to be stronger than it was before.

So it seems Yeezy was onto something when he said “Na-na-na that that don’t kill me, can only make me stronger”. Interesting.

It seems that no matter how much Milo smothered milk you drink and how much spinach you eat to keep your bones ‘strong and healthy’, the best thing you can do is to break them, and force their strengthening the hard way – obviously more painful but hey, if it gets the job done right?

Now I’m not suggesting you start attempting backflips and trapeze swinging as a method of toughening up – if you do, at least get a go pro and share the footage around – but I am asking that you see the value in being broken.

I know at the time, a broken bone, crushed heart, shattered dream and battered ego is a brutal sentence, but trust in Mr. Kanye West and rest easy in the knowledge that such tremors “makes us harder, better, faster, stronger”.

We learn far more from our mistakes than our successes, and a huge part of living in this day and age, is our responsibility to abuse the opportunities we are given. No doubt you’ll fall, oh honey, you’re going to crash and burn.

Your world will fall apart, and fall apart again. You’ll stop having fun with your ‘best friend’ and be forced to find a new one, you will stop enjoying your job, mangoes will go out of season and your favourite show will release its finale. Your dream job won’t want you, neither will Ryan Gosling, and you are going to make wrong decisions again and again.

It’s all part of it, and that’s okay. Just know that there is value in getting it wrong, and most of the time it’s so wrong it’s right.

So jump higher than you think you can, and don’t be too afraid of coming back down, because:

It’s like, you know when you’ve set yourself up for a ‘Nanna Nap’, not any old nap, but a strictly-18-minutes-only-snooze. You set your alarm for the precise amount of time, and as you slowly allow yourself to drift into a heavenly slumber, you start thinking about everything you have to do as soon as the alarm goes off.

You start to panic wondering if you should just pack it in and ditch the nap altogether, but no, “I deserve and NEED this nap” you tell yourself. But before you commit, you look back at the clock once more, “Alrighty,15 minutes to go, I’ve got this!”

And then the little devil inside chirps up again:

“Hmm is it snack time yet?”

“Surely it’s snack time, hmm, I’m hungry.”

“What will I have for a snack?”

“I think we still have some Pad Thai left, tat will be yum.”

“Lol what am I thinking, I’m trying to be healthy. I saw some bananas, definitely a smoothie.”

“Smoothies, yum! Good idea Shee! I wonder what else I could put in this magical smoothie.”

“Ugh STOP thinking about your damn smoothie, NAP! You have like only 14 minutes left now.”

“Ok so let’s get this straight, as soon as the alarm goes off, I’m going to sort out this, call her, text him about that, clean this, wash that, the list goes on to the tune of “My head is a Jungle”.

“Ok, one last look at my phone for the time before I 100% promise to nap.”

“2 minutes left, What? Seriously? Noooo!!”

The above example is 100% accurate in my world, and following the whole one-sided dialogue, I am always malnourished of the miniscule 18 minute doze I so desperately needed, I often opt instead for a huge cup of coffee, with a side of guilt for

Spending almost a quarter of an hour thinking about a damn smoothie I now don’t even want.

Spending 18 minutes being completely useless, and most of all,

Not having the nap I promised myself.

So I bargained a simple nap, a slice of solitude and relaxation for just a moment, but instead, I polluted every last second of it.

And looking back, I’m a classic for polluting the good by not being totally there, for being less than present and not completely embracing whatever ‘it’ is.

It’s the ultimate sabotage, the purest form of self-betrayal and one, which is way too common today. In an effort to reduce this epidemic, i’ve come up with some simple solutions to some of life’s most pressing issues, hear me out:

You want an ice cream? Then go bloody get it, and grab a double scoop in a waffle cone while you’re at it. And annoy the ice-cream girl with asking for at least 5 samples. This is your time to shine, don’t hold back!

You want to go to the beach? I don’t care that you are in a mode of self-imprisonment due to a forthcoming exam tomorrow – tomorrow is going to come whether you got to the beach or not, so why not just go.

You want to move out? Do it! Sure Mum will be sad, but she’ll still be able to show you love in the form of sending 2000 “are you alive” texts a day. Plus you’ll be home every Tuesday for Spaghetti anyway.

Moral of the story: do what you want – only if you do it with a twist: BE THERE.

Actually show up mentally, physically and emotionally.

Embrace your salted caramel gelato with every delicate lick, squeeze the sand between your toes with extra vigor and splash around in the ocean because you can. But most importantly, do not be afraid of making the decisions that seemed so huge and adulterated when you were young – because you are older now, and it is time.